All Fall Down by Megan Hart Page A

checking to make sure they weren’t living in squalor or beating their children. This woman had looked around Liesel and Christopher’s house as though it were a dungeon made from a garbage heap.
    “Yeah. She’ll have to write up a report—”
    “A report?” Sunny frowned. Report was what they did in Sanctuary when someone chose not to share their discretions and needed someone to do it for them.
    “That’s right. A report about whether or not she thinks your children will be protected here with you.”
    Sunny’s fingers tightened on the mug. “Of course they will! I love my children!”
    “Nobody doubts that,” said Officer Smith. “And I’m sure Mrs. Umberger will put that in her report. And since your dad and his wife have assured us and Mrs. Umberger that you’ll be taken care of, I’m sure it will all be fine. You and your kids are very lucky, Sunny.”
    With that, they left her sitting at the table. Not even the hot mug could warm her. She hadn’t known it wasn’t just a drill, Sunny thought. But she should have. John Second using Papa’s voice instead of his own should’ve told her that. Or else she should have known when she listened with her heart. There should’ve been the small, still voice Papa had told them would let them know when it was time to leave, except that Sunny had heard nothing.
    Had her mother heard it?
    “Sunny? Hon, are you okay?” In the doorway, Liesel held Bliss. “Did they leave?”
    Sunny nodded. “Is she hungry? I can take her.”
    Liesel looked into the baby’s face with soft eyes and a small smile. “Yeah, I think she is. What a little cutie. I changed her diaper, too.”
    “Thanks.” Sunny held up her hands to take the baby as Liesel handed her over. “Happy? Peace?”
    “They’re fine. They’re playing Candy Land with Christopher.” At what must’ve been a confused look, Liesel chuckled. “It’s a board game. They’re having fun. They’re okay. They’re just in the den. I know it must be weird for you, all of this. If you want to talk about it, hon…I’m here.”
    “I don’t have anything to talk about.” Sunny put Bliss to her breast, noticing how Liesel’s gaze slid away, as if it embarrassed her to watch. The blemished were okay with parading women’s breasts across billboards to sell cars, but feeding children with them seemed to be completely out of line. “Thank you, though.”
    “More tea? I can warm it up for you.”
    “No, thanks.”
    Liesel looked as though she was about to say something else, but then didn’t. “I’ll just go check on Christopher and the kids. Give you some privacy.”
    Sunny fed her daughter. This house was cleaner than any place she’d ever lived, even despite the hours she and many of her sisters had spent on their knees scrubbing floors. It was warm, too. Smelled nice, like flowers, even though it was winter. The water was hot, the food was plentiful and varied.
    They’d bought her clothes. Given her toys for her children. Disposable diapers, which went against everything Papa had ever taught them about being kind to the earth, and yet were so much more wonderfully easy to use than the cloth diapers she’d used for all her kids.
    This could be a good place for them, she thought. Except she couldn’t stop thinking about Sanctuary. After years of preparation, training that had gone on as long as Sunny could remember, John Second had actually done what his father had always promised was coming.
    Her mom. John Second. All the men and women Sunny had thought of as her brothers and sisters, no matter if they didn’t share actual parents. Everyone was related in the family.
    And the children.
    Oh, the children. A strangled sob tore at her throat, and she pressed her lips together to hold it inside. Why had her mother sent her away if she knew John Second was going to have them all leave, make it more than just a drill? Sunny slipped cold fingers over the top of her infant daughter’s head, and thought she